Heather,

I graduated from Samford University, Cumberland School of Law in 2010, and I am working at their law library (a 501(c)(3)) while I finished a LLM in tax. I graduated from the LLM program this past August and now Sallie Mae wants her money back. The first payment is due in mid-October (it may have snuck up on me, I was expecting December).  I talked to our Career Services Director Jeff Price and he forwarded me a video of a presentation you gave at Cumberland last year. I had some follow up questions and he recommended I contact the expert.

When I checked the Sallie Mae website, my loans were divided between Department of Education owned and Sallie Mae owned. The majority of the loans are government owned but payments on them are not due until 2015 (I don’t know why). The loans owned by Sallie Mae, which are currently due, consist of a Stafford subsidized, unsubsidized, and a bar study loan (which I know from your presentation does not qualify for public service forgiveness).  When I tried to lower my payment, the only payment program it would recommend for me was something called “income sensitive repayment.”

I think the reason it would not give me an income based repayment option was because the overall amount of the loans owned by Sallie Mae is so low. When I tried to see if I qualified for income based repayment on the Department of Education loans, it wouldn’t let me check my eligibility (probably because the payments are not due).

What I think I should do is consolidate the Stafford from Sallie Mae into the Department of Education loans (which are all federal direct). My problem is (among other things) what is the exact procedure for getting things situated where I can start making qualifying payments.

How do I go about consolidating all the federal direct loans together and make sure I keep out the unqualifying amounts?

If I have to make a payment under income sensitive repayment, will that prevent me from switching to income based repayment as soon as the loans are consolidated?

And will it be possible to do everything I need to do before the mid-October payment?

Any help you can provide in this situation would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Jay Hartin

Hello Jay.  Thank you for your question and sorry to hear about your situation.  Unfortunately, Heather cannot provide personalized legal advice without first associating with local counsel in your state (because of the rules governing attorneys).  She is only able to give you general legal information.  For more personal assistance, she recommends GLAdvisor.  GLAdvisor is a unique company helping student loan borrowers manage their student loan decisions and paperwork, including tax preparation.  Heather acts as a consultant to GL, and has been very impressed by their service and expertise.  You can get a free assessment at https://clientportal.gladvisor.com/registration.aspx and see what works best for you.

Let me know if other questions come up.

Kind regards,

James Jarvis
Communications Director
Heather Jarvis, Student Loan Expert LLC